Xref: utzoo rec.arts.sf-lovers:57335 sci.bio:4699 Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!mtxinu!unisoft!fai!sequent!crg5!szabo From: szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo) Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf-lovers,sci.bio Subject: Incest avoidance Message-ID: <21487@crg5.UUCP> Date: 3 Apr 91 06:10:48 GMT References: <9276@plains.NoDak.edu> <1991Mar31.223444.11077@leland.Stanford.EDU> <8987.27f748d9@jetson.uh.edu> <1991Apr2.035304.11461@leland.Stanford.EDU> Reply-To: szabo@crg5.UUCP (Nick Szabo) Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc Lines: 53 In article <1991Apr2.035304.11461@leland.Stanford.EDU> repnomar@leland.Stanford.EDU (Janet M. Lafler) writes: >[Structuralist et. al. schools of anthropology theory] >some still hold to socio-biological explanations, which I find, um, uncon- >vincing. Whoa, that went by a bit fast. Slow down here. "Still"? Sociobiology, at 16 years old, as far newer than Structuralism and most of the other schools you describe. I would bet most anthropologists have not read the works by any of Wilson, Dawkins, Symons, et. al. even by 1991. Also, you failed to describe the sociobiological explanation, which is as follows: The proximate cause of the incest "taboo" (more properly called incest avoidance) is the behavioral development, upon sexual maturity, of sexual avoidance between children who shared proximity and a common caretaker between the ages of 2 and 5. This has been confirmed by observations of various human societies, both where the caretaker and/or children are related by genetics and/or adoption. The ultimate cause is the harm caused by inbreeding, as has been discussed. Genes which produce the above behavioral development tended to perpetuate themselves more often than their alleles through human evolutionary history. Note that evolution does not require the behavior to be perfect, any more than evolution designed bipedal creatures with a perfect back (ouch!). It just has to benefit the encoding genes more than its bad side-effects hurt them. The theory is further confirmed from behavior of other primates, which develop a similar incest "taboo" without the accompanying cultural structures required by the Structuralist, Symbolic, Interpretive, and other pure-culture schools. If sociobiology theory is right, Heinlein is fighting not only human cultural prejudice, but prejudice encoded in our genes. No wonder so many people hate him. :-) Taboos involving cousins, et. al,, are more sophisticated, and the various cultural schools have more relevence for these, though it is not clear that biology is totally out of the picture. (If anybody interested is not up on sociobiology theory, I'll be happy to explain further proximate vs. ultimate causation). -- Nick Szabo szabo@sequent.com "If you want oil, drill lots of wells" -- J. Paul Getty The above opinions are my own and not related to those of any organization I may be affiliated with.